Concrete components made from R concrete – Application examples and production of SeRaMCo products
The Interreg NWE SeRaMCo (Secondary Raw Materials for Concrete Precast Products) EU research project – involving eleven international partners from industry and research and a total funding amounting of € 7.3 million – is aiming at increasing the use of recycled aggregates in precast concrete construction. This is achieved by closed cycles along the entire value chain, the dissemination of professional know-how and building up public confidence in the material.
As part of the project several products were developed and produced with the collaboration of precast plants in order to establish recycled concrete in the market. On the one hand, these are innovative solutions for new applications in the sense of sustainability, such as breakwaters made from “salt-concrete”. On the other hand, typical concrete products with a considerable market share such as L-walls are manufactured from R concrete, for example.
Some optimized concrete mix designs were used for an industrial production of precast products. Up to a 100 % recycled aggregates were used in this process. Moreover, the cement used could be produced and used with a proportion of 15 % of recycled sand. This did not lead to any alterations in cement quality.
At the end of the project, all project outputs will be brought together in order to implement pilot building structures in three countries. In this regard, not only technological challenges will be overcome but also administrative ones. Besides Thionville (France) and Seraing (Belgium), a pilot will be implemented in the partner city of Pirmasens (Germany) by using semi-precast wall elements and floor slabs, a pavilion is constructed on the campus in Pirmasens in the collaboration with the city. The pavilion will serve as a stage for artists and will be open to the general public as meeting place.
